The second term came around in January. The weather was a bit better than December, but it was still wet and gloomy. My second term schedule consisted of seven courses, one more than the first term. They consisted of one math course, five program-specific courses, and a technical writings course. This particular writings course was so called “the technical writing course from hell” and historically had a 40-60% failure rate. Unfortunately, every student in my faculty must pass this course in order to graduate. I was pretty intimidated at the very start, and the fact that my first assignment got a C didn’t help my confidence. By the end of the second week, all I was aiming for was a pass.
My other courses of the term were the usual math and technical courses. None of them were too difficult by themselves, but all six of these courses plus the writings course gave me a very heavy schedule. At the start of the term, I didn’t think one extra course was going to make much of a difference, but I was wrong. For the first time in my post-secondary career, I was starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work to get done in order to get the grades. Other than the first two or three weeks, I had at least one important at-school evaluation every week until the end of the term. This meant I had to study pretty much every day in order to keep up. Adding to this was the fact that I had to find a co-op job for the summer. This heavy school load took a toll on me. I became even less socially active then before, if that’s even possible. The added time crunch of the various labs and projects also meant I went the gym less than before, so despite my best efforts, I actually gained weight instead of losing any. However, I lost all the pounds I’ve gained by the end of the term, thanks to a prolonged case of stomach problems. Losing weight is good and all, but I wouldn’t want to go through that “diet” ever again.
Other than the heavier course load, another difference I noticed about second term was that none of the courses assigned any formal homework, or more accurately homework didn’t count for any marks. This appeared to be good news on the surface, but once I thought about it, having homework or the lack thereof didn’t matter very much. No homework usually meant that more marks were riding on the exams, and I still had to the assigned questions anyways for study purposes. From my standpoint, maybe having formal homework was better since at least I get credit for my efforts.
This second term was also different from all previous terms in that there was a very large project component to a few of my courses. I always seem to do better on exams than on projects, and this term was no exception. I still had a lab course, but instead of lab exams, we had to do technical projects such as a metal detector and a self-controlled cart. There was also a huge research paper for the technical writings course. I spent a lot of time outside of class in order to complete these projects. My hard work paid off on the research paper, for which my group received a high mark. However, my lab course projects were not so great. They weren’t terrible and worked for the most part, but other groups had better products. I guess I am not as handy as I thought myself to be, but those projects were pretty fun if I ignore the fact that it took many hours to complete the projects.
The combination of the project components, the heavier course load, and the writing course (from hell) obviously dropped my overall average. I actually got the lowest average I’ve ever had in my post-secondary career for this term, but it wasn’t really anything to be too upset about since 1: marks are just marks; and 2) most people wouldn’t be too upset with my average. Coincidentally, when combined together with my first term, my second year average was exactly the same as my first year average. This meant I neither improved nor fell behind, and I’ll take that as good news.
One interesting thing I noticed in second year is a trend in lecture attendance. What I’ve noticed is that at the start of term, pretty much everybody attends their lectures. After about a week or so, attendance will start falling until only about half to two-thirds of people show up regularly. Of course, everybody will show up when there’s a quiz or midterm. This is a trend that I didn’t notice in my first year. This trend can mean many things, and here are some of my theories:
1: Some people are getting so smart and/or self-proficient that they don’t need to attend class any more. Lectures are for newbie first year students.
2: The lectures in second year are so boring that people are having trouble staying awake in class. In this case, it might be better to just skip and do something else.
3: After first year, some people just don’t care anymore.
There are probably many more reasons why so many people don’t show up. Whether of not other people attend class doesn’t really matter to me, but I just thought it was an interesting fact to note down.
One last funny thing about the second term was that I left behind and regained my pencil bag three occurrences. Two times I lost my pencil bag prior to writing a midterm, and I had to borrow writing instruments from classmates. On both of these occasions I left my bag in the laboratory I was studying in before the midterm. The last time I left my pencil bag behind was during a final exam. I had to walk in a big circle inside the campus before I actually recovered the bag. Another item that I left behind in school was my umbrella, but unlike my pencil bag, the umbrella was never seen again.
After two terms of hard work, I should really be looking forward to a nice and long summer vacation, but that’s not the case. During the first term, I applied and got accepted into a co-op program, which meant that I had to work during the summer. Despite my lack of previous work experience, I managed to find a job pretty quickly, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’ll have no more long vacations for a long time to come. Well, I probably won’t have long vacations after I graduate (probably until my retirement), so I suppose this is an opportunity to get used it early on. Of course, I shouldn’t really forget about the job experience and money gained from working in a real job either. After the brutal second term, I had my fill of school for a while, so working will give a change of pace if not other things.
Overall, second year was similar to my first year, other than there was more work involved. I managed to overcome the higher work load to some degree, but once again I failed to do much socially. I suppose that’s just the kind of person I am, but I’ll try to remedy that when school comes again next year. For everybody reading this, have a nice summer or winter or… just try have a nice day. Thank you for reading this article.
Well done, Tony. We are proud of you!